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From the author of the "big-hearted ... inspiring" (Vogue) New York Times bestseller Kabul Beauty School comes a fiction debut as compelling as real life: the story of a remarkable coffee shop in the heart of Kabul and the women who meet there - each with a story and a secret that will lead them all to an extraordinary friendship.
After hard luck and some bad choices, Sunny has finally found a place to call home—it just happens to be in the middle of a war zone. The thirty-eight-year-old American's pride and joy is the Kabul Coffee House, where she brings hospitality to the expatriates, misfits, missionaries, and mercenaries who stroll through its doors. She's especially grateful that the busy days allow her to forget Tommy, the love of her life, who left her in pursuit of money and adventure.
Working alongside Sunny is the maternal Halajan, who vividly recalls the days before the Taliban and now must hide a modern romance from her ultratraditional son—who, unbeknownst to her, is facing his own religious doubts. Into the café come Isabel, a British journalist on the trail of a risky story; Jack, who left his family back home in Michigan to earn "danger pay" as a consultant; and Candace, a wealthy and well-connected American whose desire to help threatens to cloud her judgment.
When Yazmina, a young Afghan from a remote village, is kidnapped and left on a city street pregnant and alone, Sunny welcomes her into the café and gives her a home—but Yazmina hides a secret that could put all their lives in jeopardy. As this group of men and women discover that there's more to one another than meets the eye, they'll form an unlikely friendship that will change not only their own lives but the lives of an entire country.
Brimming with Deborah Rodriguez's remarkable gift for depicting the nuances of life in Kabul, and filled with vibrant characters that readers will truly care about, A Cup of Friendship is the best kind of fiction—full of heart yet smart and thought-provoking.
"Readers will appreciate in-depth, sensory descriptions of this oft-mentioned and faraway place that most have never seen." - Booklist
"A craftsman and a storyteller, Rodriguez captures place and people wholeheartedly..." - Publishers Weekly
"But this first novel is engrossing ... especially those with an interest in current events in the Middle East..." - Library Journal
"But ultimately her cozy sentimentality undercuts the elements of harsh realism, as if Maeve Binchy had written The Kite Runner." - Kirkus
This information about A Cup of Friendship was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo © Chad Hunt
Deborah Rodriguez is the author of the international bestsellers--the memoir The Kabul Beauty School, and the novels The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, and Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, all inspired by her life in Afghanistan. She is also the author of Margarita Wednesdays, a memoir based on her experiences following her return to America, and the novels The Zanzibar Wife and Island on the Edge of the World.
Deborah spent five years teaching and later directing the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan. She also owned the Oasis Salon and the Cabul Coffee House, and is the founder of the nonprofit organization Oasis Rescue, which aims to teach women in post-conflict and disaster-stricken areas the art of hairdressing.
She ...
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